المعنى الاصطلاحي :

The city of Jerusalem in Palestine, where the blessed Aqsa Mosque is located.

الشرح المختصر :

"Bayt al-Maqdis" (Jerusalem) is the name of the city that houses the Aqsa Mosque. The city's current Arabic name is "Al-Quds" (Jerusalem). It was named "Al-Quds" and "Bayt al-Maqdis" (both are derived from a root that means sacredness) because it was purified from "shirk" (polytheism; associating partners with Allah in worship), and Allah made it a residing place for prophets and messengers. The Aqsa Mosque, which was built at the foot of the mountain in the city of Al-Quds, is called "Bayt al-Maqdis", meaning the purified house wherein sins are cleansed. It was the first "qiblah" (prayer direction) of the Muslims before the Ka‘bah was made their "qiblah". It is also the third of the three Sacred Mosques in Islam (after the Al-Harām Mosque in Makkah and the Prophet's Mosque in Madinah). It was the destination of Prophet Muhammad, may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him, on the night of "Isrā" and "Mi‘rāj" (the Night Journey and the Ascent to Heaven). It is one of the three sacred mosques which Muslims are allowed to travel to in order to visit them. It is the mosque whose surroundings Allah has blessed, as mentioned in the Noble Qur’an in the first verse of Sūrat al-Isrā. It was reported in an authentic Hadith that the time interval between the construction of Al-Harām Mosque in Makkah and the Aqsa Mosque was forty years.